Hello Reader,
I'm back again a lot of things have been going on in my life that required my attention, so I apologize for the lack of posts.

Like I promised I am going to start a comic series as well starting with this post, and let me talk about it a little first. I love to play Dungeons and Dragons, but lately there has been a lack of playing it, numerous reasons really. This though is going to be my solution to coop with the lack of it for the mean time.

Call me old fashioned and cheesy, but yes, as you probably can guess, this is a comic were its "all a dream" because of the car crash I am put into a dream like state where my desire for the fantasy world comes to life and my new reality.

On a side note: One of the reasons I have been away from WBDM is because I actually was in a car accident when we had the big thunder/snow storm last Tuesday. As you can tell though, I am fine.

Happy Birthday To You

Last night was Alex's 21st birthday, and as good friend of the WBDM team, I made this little comic as a remembrance of last night.

Another good friend of the WBDM decided to bring a lady friend with us to the celebration, and this lady, as nice as she is, just doesn't shut up. An entire hour went on without her stopping to breathe. It was really a spectacle to behold.

Alex, already lost all of his patience, lays down the rules.

Poor guy.

We went to a pool hall and had a genuinely good time. Alex got right and shit-faced as is customary on a 21st birthday. We played some pool, I'm terrible at it, but it was fun.

Being underage, I got to be Designated Driver. That suited me just fine. I don't drink that much any more after an incident during Christmas. Let's just put it this way; a near-full bottle of 103 proof whiskey, an hour and a half and then an empty bottle of 103 proof whiskey. That was certainly not a good night for me.

It's the same thing for me every time. I don't know my limits until I'm laying in bed, clutching my gut and muttering "I don't want to die" into my pillow. I'm still young and have a full life ahead of me to make mistakes and I really, really can't wait to make them

Impromptu Filler Content.

No art this time. Sorry.

Bill would like me to apologize for not having an update this week. He's been absolutely swamped with real life things. Us here at WBDM Headquarters would like to wish him the best of luck.

Since this is all sort of spur-of-the-moment content, I'd just like to briefly go over what White Boy Dance Moves means to me. To me, this is 1 part art, 1 part wishy-washy web log and 10 parts opportunity to spend time with a friend I don't get to see all that often any more.

I think since we first met in Middle School, Bill and I had pretty much the same passion for Art. I wanted a sort of outlet for my drawing, and I wanted Bill to become involved. He's definitely a very talented individual whom I deeply, deeply respect. 

We were talking one day about his fears for the future. I can certainly relate. The future for an artist is uncertain at best, even worse for an art teacher. I approached Bill and gave him the offer to co-write a blog with me. Not really as a business venture or anything, but simply a way to pass the time and share what we both love. I've been simply ecstatic that he decided to join me in this silly little endeavour and really enjoy checking on Thursdays for what my friend has to say.

We're still in the infancy stages of this project, but I see big things in the future for White Boy Dance Moves, and couldn't think of a better man to co-pilot this with me.

God speed, William. I hope you find your silver lining.

We are not a healthy people.

Hey. Don't judge me. I'm allowed to be a shitty person every now and again.

I've been thinking a lot lately. We, as a people, are 5 million years worth of evolutionary growth. Maybe it's time we started acting like it.

For every good thing we're given, we've found a way to completely ruin it. We're given a perfectly good set of lungs, we fuck them up with cigarette smoke. We fall in love, we hurt them over petty jealousy. We're given every opportunity in the world the change your life for the better and we just sit on our hands and say "No. I'm not ready yet".

But you know what? Sometimes it's just not our fault. Sometimes we're just stupid or afraid. Hell, I know I'm guilty of it. We're too timid and broken to realize we may have something good. It's kind of silly, when you stop and really think about it. How many great opportunities have you turned down because you were timid?

We've all been hurt one way or another. We're a species of broken individuals. If you've made it this far through life and don't have any bruises or scars to show for it, congratulations, you're not a human being but an automaton.

I don't know. My head hurts. There isn't some sort of magic wand that you can wave and make all of your hurt disappear. We all have our coping mechanisms, and I can see just how easy it is to become bitter and sceptical. I don't want to live like that. So I'll just keep trudging on wearing my bruises as badges and see what lays ahead for me.

I want everyone, just once, when they come to a crossroad to decide immediately on making the choice that would affect them in a positive way instead of standing there with a thumb up their butt. That's what I'm going to try to do.

Comic Testing

Welcome back readers. First of I would like to apologize for the lack of Thursday Post. Things happen in the world and life just prevents some of us from doing anything productive. (Don't worry I am back on track with this project.)

 I probably should explain a little bit of what I have going on here this week. This is my first comic painting that I have done. It is actually a test for a future series I wish to run, perhaps it will become my Thursday posts. This comic was actually a design project for a class, it is an illustration of a scene from the book "Agents of Artifice" by Ari Marmell. For those that have read this great novel, yes Chandra is not in the book. However I needed some element that was Red. Chandra just fits the bill, plus she is one of my favorite of the Planeswalkers.

Next week please look forward to the first for my comic series: "The Codex of Betrayal".

Tremble, ye mortal hearts.

I'm really bad at remembering, or even caring enough, to take my medicine. I'm sure that's not good. Even just now, at 11:31pm, I'm deciding to pop my pill. Oh well, It's done and over with. I don't really have much to say about this post. Pretty self explanatory. I've been trying to work some things on GIMP. Just experimenting, we'll see how it goes.

Many of my local readers would know that Monday night we had a damn near cataclysmic storm pass over us. I spent the evening with my good friend Bill and his lady-friend. Watching the news, keeping an eye out of the window. It was raining sideways. Excellent.

I was really reminded of living in Arizona. Since I moved here to Wisconsin, I've heard people say that they can smell rain before it even appears. Living here for a while now, I've started to be able to smell the weather. It's kind of a funny thing. It's kind of a musty aroma. I can't exactly explain it, but I know what it means.

One thing that can bring me back into my memories more than anything else are smells. I don't exactly remember the smells, but I'll know them when I smell them. Like the smell of the carpet in my 2nd grade class when I was still living in California. The smell of wet pavement brings me back to rainy days in Arizona. Yes, oh nonbeliever, it rains in Arizona. It's a different kind of rain, though. Where here, in Wisconsin, it may sprinkle briefly on and off. In Arizona, it built up. Dark clouds would linger all day long, accumulating and building until eventually it would pop. When the rainclouds finally built to their climax, the outcome was total phenomenal. Just torrential downpours for hours and hours.

You see, where I used to live, the dirt was so dry it couldn't absorb the water quickly enough. When these horrible rainy days would come, they would cause flash floods. But nothing was really ever quite as exciting as  staying in my home, playing Pokemon Gold version on gameboy and listening to the thick drops pitter-patter against my bedroom window.

Amazing how a storm can bring back memories so vividly. Last night, I decided to start up another game of Pokemon Gold. Grown up now, listening to the rain ping against my window air conditioner. Totodile and I are in this for the long run.

All These Sleepless Nights And Running Thoughts

When I'm not sleeping, I'm awake. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Duh". Yeah, seems pretty pointless to say, but what you don't understand is that I spend a lot of time awake. Sometimes days on end. This happens to be one of those instances. Sad to say that I didn't put 100% of myself into this comic because, quite frankly, I'm too tired to care. But I promised one every Tuesday and I'll be damned if I'm called a liar.

Abruptly moving into an unrelated thought. I've been listening to a band called Jim's Big Ego recently and I'm way into this song called "Jumblies". It's a nonsense poem written by Edward Lear put to music. Anyways, the poem is about a group of little creatures called Jumblies that take a sieve out to sea in the middle of a thunderstorm. I wont go into excruciating detail, I'll post a link to the poem at the end of the post*. I'm pretty certain even though it's nonsense, it's about doing something that might seem like a bad idea, but ultimately ends up in growth. Even thought these little creatures are tossing and turning in a strainer in the middle of the ocean, they're on an adventure together. Something about this really resonates with me. Doing something that's a bad idea just for the sake of doing it. Like climbing on top of a cargo train, or dumpster diving. I'm so envious of the people who have the guts to just do what they want.

This is getting long and rambling. It's 12:04 AM on Tuesday. Enjoy.

Love, sincerely,
Garrett.

*http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/ns/jumblies.html